Post by Il Padrino on May 5, 2009 14:33:48 GMT 1

We are planning the launch of a completely renewed race engine. Initially, it will be implemented for the fun races only, later on also in all competitive races.

While a lot of work is still to be done, and many things can still change, we felt that it would be appreciated if we informed you about some of the new and changed things to expect for the races.

A lot of the race aspects will change, one of the only things that won’t change is the fact that you will still be able to enter with 5 different cyclists in a race or tour. But with the new race engine you’ll be able to give individual orders to each of those selected cyclists. And of course the race calculation and representation itself will be quite different as well.

TeamTactics skill and cyclist ordersOne of the new aspects will be a new approach of the Leadership skill. This will be renamed to TeamTactics, which enables you to choose different tactical orders for one or more of your selected cyclists. The higher the TeamTactics skill, the more tactical options you will have available. The TeamTactic skill is translated into a certain amount of points. So it is as if you can “buy” tactics with the TeamTactic points in your wallet and each tactic will cost a certain amount of TeamTactic points.

You will have the ability to choose from one of these 4 individual cyclist orders:

1. "Save Fitness": The cyclist with this order won’t take any initiative during the entire race. He is just going with the flow, hiding from the headwind by drafting behind others backs and stay with the peloton. So the cyclist will try to save his strength as much as possible, with the only goal to reach to finish. By doing so, it is not surprising he will lose only a little fitness at the finish line. This tactic is opportune when the cyclist does not really pursue a good overall ranking in a tour, but rather aims for that specific race victory later on.

2. "Attacker" : The cyclist will attempt an attack on one or more predefined points during the race. When a cyclist attempts an attack, he will first perform a break-away (‘demarrage’) to create an initial gap. For this break-away the cyclist needs a sufficient Sprint skill.

3. "Helper": This task is given to cyclists that you want to concentrate on helping your attacker(s) and/or final sprinter. When a cyclist has a flat tire or a fall and he has enough helpers in his group at that time, these helpers will guide the cyclist back to his group without any time penalty.

A helper will also help his team mate(s) to overcome a bad part of the race. When there is for instance a strip of hill and one of your cyclists only has poor hill skill, the helpers will surround him and try to keep him in the group. The more helpers in the group, the more effective their influence is and the better a lower skilled cyclist can hang on to them.

Helpers also actively tend to keep the peloton speed as high as possible. Together with other team mates having that same order, but also together with the helpers from the other teams he will form a line (‘echelon’) at the front of the peloton, boosting its speed.

4. "Final sprinter": An order you would use when you are aiming for a mass sprint at the end of the race. A cyclist with this order will stay in the peloton during the race, but will unleash his remaining powers during the final field sprint. His Sprint skill will be boosted when he approaches the finish to make a final kick or anticipate on another final sprinter’s jump. Like in real life cycling, the helpers will form a line and try to bring their final sprinter in the best possible way to the final field sprint.

General race aspectsFollowing is a list of different game aspects and cyclist's behaviour to expect:

Every cyclist will start the race in the field (‘peloton’).

The speed of this peloton will depend mainly on the combined skills of the helpers but every other cyclist in the peloton will have a smaller contribution to the group’s speed as well.

A cyclist can only break away from the peloton by attacking. No matter how good his skills are, he will stay in the peloton when he does not attempt an attack.

The speed of a group will mainly be determined by the combined terrain skill of all the members of the group for the terrain of the strip they are on. On top of that, and depending on the size of the group, the time trial skill is also of importance.

A single rider will have to face the wind and weather all the time, and therefore cannot hide behind another cyclist’s back. In those circumstances, he needs to be a sufficiently skilled time trialer to keep up a constant pace. However, in a more extended group, the cyclists can draft behind one another, forming an echelon, and as such the individual time trial skills will be of less importance for the pace of the entire group.

Just like in real life cycling, when the race is nearing the end, the peloton will increase the pace and spin harder and harder to get the final sprinters in the best positions or because they think they still can successfully chase the last group of escapers ahead of them.

Intermediate sprints are handled as in real life, i.e. you don’t have to elect point sprint or mountain sprint cyclists anymore before the race starts. The one that reaches an intermediate sprint first, will get the most points, and so on. If a group of cyclists has reached an intermediate sprint they will sprint for the points.

Flats and falls will cause you to loose a fixed amount of time, which is independent of the terrain you were on when it occurred. Remember that helpers in the same group might overcome the disadvantages of a flat or fall.

A more detailed explanation on all these tactics and general race aspects will be given when this new race engine is about to get implemented in the fun races. This announcement is already made now so you can adapt your long term tactics to this new race engine.

To conclude: the Time Trial skill and the Sprint skill will become much more important in every race. The higher the TeamTactic skill (Leadership now), the more tactics that can be chosen.

"Few people understand the psychology of dealing with a highway traffic cop. Your normal speeder will panic and immediately pull over to the side. This is wrong. It arouses contempt in the cop-heart. Make the bastard chase you. He will follow." - Raoul Duke

Post by Schizm on May 5, 2009 15:23:54 GMT 1

Very Nice changes ahead, indeed.

But I'm not sure I understand the Teamtactics part completely : - These Teamtactics points is this based on the total (ex-)leadership-skill of your selected cyclists, or only on the designated 'leader' ?- Will these teamtactics evolve in the same way as the leadership-skill does now ?- What happens when you enter a race without teamtactics points, or what behaviour will be generated for cyclists who's tactic isn't set, will they have random behaviour

Maybe the 'watchdog' behaviour can be implemented to. That is for cyclists who try to follow escape groups but won't work in it. (f.i. because the teams wants their sprinter to win the race).So he would discourage the escapees a bit.

Post by tauros on May 5, 2009 15:29:09 GMT 1

I'm not sure I understand the Teamtactics part : - These Teamtactics points is this based on the total (ex-)leadership-skill of your selected cyclists, or only on the designated 'leader'.- Will these teamtactics evolve in the same way as the leadership-skill does now ?- What happens when you enter a race without teamtactics points, or what behaviour will be generated for cyclists who's tactic isn't set, will they have random behaviour

Post by boucthesurvivor on May 5, 2009 15:37:42 GMT 1

Ouch!

It seems very good if it works and is well balanced between the different aspects!

"A cyclist can only break away from the peloton by attacking. No matter how good his skills are, he will stay in the peloton when he does not attempt an attack."Can cyclist be distanced by the peloton? Like in mountain, where one can win without necessarily attacking... Is there anymore groupings during the stages?

Post by Schizm on May 5, 2009 15:47:24 GMT 1

I am afraid that with the peloton that will be created now, a lot more cyclists will end with the same time in smaller tours, will this cause problems or not?

Good for sprinters! Or for attacking guys, that succeed to escape once!

I agree with bouc.If you want to win a tour in the future you should be in an escape group (or try to follow one), so you 'll have to be on the attack at a certain point. Also the bonification seconds a the finish could play a bigger part in the final standings.Still there will certainly be more cyclists in the same time after those guys. So maybe it is wise to keep better track of the place they finished at, for each race, so the final ranking for cyclists with the same time can be based on that.

Post by NikeBoy on May 5, 2009 16:11:56 GMT 1

But what with cyclists who cannot sprint or ride a time trail, like for instance:Flat 5 Hill 3 Mountain 8 Downhill 0 Sprint 1 Time Trail 0

Does this mean cyclists with this kind of stats have no chance to win a race at all?

Indeed, it will be very hard for this guy to escape from the peloton and/or to win a pelotonsprint, but not impossible !

tauros said:

So, does it mean that this will be the end of finishing with 3 -4 riders into the top 5/10?

Will this also mean that ALL the riders of the peloton will end at the same time as the winner of a sprint and no more finishing in groups?

You can still end with 5 cyclist in the top 5, if they all attack or if they have the best sprintskill of all cyclists.

Yes, all riders in the peloton will get the same time. Ofcourse, with attacks being placed, new groups will be formed and also behind the peloton groups will be formed of riders not able to follow the peloton... so, there will be less groups as today in the old engine (probably)

Post by NikeBoy on May 5, 2009 16:15:55 GMT 1

But I'm not sure I understand the Teamtactics part completely : - These Teamtactics points is this based on the total (ex-)leadership-skill of your selected cyclists, or only on the designated 'leader' ?- Will these teamtactics evolve in the same way as the leadership-skill does now ?- What happens when you enter a race without teamtactics points, or what behaviour will be generated for cyclists who's tactic isn't set, will they have random behaviour

Maybe the 'watchdog' behaviour can be implemented to. That is for cyclists who try to follow escape groups but won't work in it. (f.i. because the teams wants their sprinter to win the race).So he would discourage the escapees a bit.

Only the ex-leadership points of the designated "leader" will be taken into account for "buying" tactics.For the moment, this TeamTatic-skill will evolve in the same way as the leadershipskill.You will get 5 points for free, always, even if you enter with a "leader" of zero TeamTacticSkill.The behaviour of the "default" cyclist is non of the above , i.e. he will nto attack, nor ride SaF, nor help, nor participate in the final sprint. So it means he will just ride in the peloton (if he can follow it)

Post by NikeBoy on May 5, 2009 16:19:05 GMT 1

Good for sprinters! Or for attacking guys, that succeed to escape once!

I agree with bouc.If you want to win a tour in the future you should be in an escape group (or try to follow one), so you 'll have to be on the attack at a certain point. Also the bonification seconds a the finish could play a bigger part in the final standings.Still there will certainly be more cyclists in the same time after those guys. So maybe it is wise to keep better track of the place they finished at, for each race, so the final ranking for cyclists with the same time can be based on that.

Indeed, good point ! The final position in a race in quite important. We will have to keep the same order (not as it is today)

Post by Schizm on May 5, 2009 16:19:44 GMT 1

But I'm not sure I understand the Teamtactics part completely : - These Teamtactics points is this based on the total (ex-)leadership-skill of your selected cyclists, or only on the designated 'leader' ?- Will these teamtactics evolve in the same way as the leadership-skill does now ?- What happens when you enter a race without teamtactics points, or what behaviour will be generated for cyclists who's tactic isn't set, will they have random behaviour

Maybe the 'watchdog' behaviour can be implemented to. That is for cyclists who try to follow escape groups but won't work in it. (f.i. because the teams wants their sprinter to win the race).So he would discourage the escapees a bit.

Only the ex-leadership points of the designated "leader" will be taken into account for "buying" tactics.For the moment, this TeamTatic-skill will evolve in the same way as the leadershipskill.You will get 5 points for free, always, even if you enter with a "leader" of zero TeamTacticSkill.The behaviour of the "default" cyclist is non of the above , i.e. he will nto attack, nor ride SaF, nor help, nor participate in the final sprint. So it means he will just ride in the peloton (if he can follow it)

Post by Schizm on May 5, 2009 16:35:53 GMT 1

I agree with bouc.If you want to win a tour in the future you should be in an escape group (or try to follow one), so you 'll have to be on the attack at a certain point. Also the bonification seconds a the finish could play a bigger part in the final standings.Still there will certainly be more cyclists in the same time after those guys. So maybe it is wise to keep better track of the place they finished at, for each race, so the final ranking for cyclists with the same time can be based on that.

Indeed, good point ! The final position in a race in quite important. We will have to keep the same order (not as it is today)

This could be done with a simple trick : just add the place they finish in as thousands or tenthousands of a second to the times. So although not visible to the users sorting can easily be done on total time only. (f.i. 11th place finish will be kept as 1:59:59.0011; 12th place 1:59:59.0012 and so on ...)